Civilization 5 Strategy Guide

Civilization 5 Strategy Guide

On this page you will find many strategies to win in Civilization 5 (V). All no-fluff, tried and tested to make sure they work.

Sid Meier's Civilization V (also known as Civilization 5) is a turn-based strategy computer game developed by Firaxis and released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010. It is the latest game in the Civilization series.

In Civilization V, you lead a civilization from prehistoric times into the future, achieving one of a number of different victory conditions through research, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest.

civ 5 horse

How To Steamroll The Enemy

Win Every Time (tested)

What I'm going to share with you is a way to steamroll the enemy. This method has been tested and works well against the AI...

The method is so easy you'll be amazed.

1. Get horseback riding

2. Get a worker

3. Get a settler

4. Found your second city next to horses

5. Get the worker to build a pasture, you're looking to get these horses ASAP

6. Switch to building horsemen SRAIGHT AWAY (even if something else is building) once your pasture(s) have been built

7. Keep building horsemen, buy horsemen, get as many as possible

8. Once you have 3 (this will be VERY early on), you can start STEAMROLLING the enemy...

9. Start attacking all opponents with your horsemen

You might be surprised at this point at what this actually is.. Yes, it's a very easy strategy, but it even works on high difficulty level and it works every time. Be sure to give them HEAL promotions so they can keep going. Expect to win by 100 turns.

Civilization 5: Korea and Ancient World Official Civilization 5 Addon - Official addon to civ 5 to add korea and the ancient world!

Civilization 5 Combat Tactics

A good way to win fights is to have high level units with the correct upgrades. The top upgrade to get is Medic since it heals the unit and all adjacent units. Since in most fights your units won't be destroyed straight away this is a very valuable upgrade. If you have all your units all next to each other they'll all heal really quickly and be very hard to kill. Cities and armies will be much easier to kill with all your units huddled up...

Unlike Civilization IV you don't have unit stacks anymore, so you'll be fighting with an army of units all next to each other. This is a good thing, much more realistic if you ask me. Positioning becomes much more important. What you want to do is have the melee infantry up front and ranged infantry in the back. But here's the thing, at a certain point you will be able to upgrade your archers and crossbowmen to gunpowder units. Don't do it straight away. Keep some of them to keep them in the back because gunpowder infantry can't fire from a distance (weird, huh?). You can however upgrade some of them to allow them to join the front lines as powerful gunpowder infantry (much stronger than melee).

Plan your wars depending on your civilization. If you're Roman you'll want to have early wars to use your legion (iron needed!) and ballista. If you're Japan you'll want to start a war when you discover steel. If you're American, minute men are awesome, wait for them if you're playing a long game.

Be sure to protect your veterans, keep them around for as long as possible. A single veteral can be a powerful killing force on the battlefield...

A Really Good Strategy I've Come To Find...

- Mining is used to clear forests and build mines so that production increases to complete the wonders faster

This gives you a quick early on advantage with technology that could help secure an early lead.

This is a useful strategy with all nationalities.

Obviously each different leader has different perks to their growth and expansion. For example the Greeks have powerful early game units with the Hoplite (replaces spearman) and the Companion Cavalry (replaces horseman). Maybe the early game is the best time for a quick war then using the greeks? Basically, being smart with the units and resources at your disposal and keeping an eye on the year and how advanced the enemy nations are is key.

Another good idea is to research Iron Working (mining->bronze working->iron working) as reasonably fast as possible so that you uncover where the iron deposits are. Iron is a strategic resource that will form the backbone of any sieges you need to do for the first 5000 years of the game (on any speed).

Yes

Yes

To any busty women out there, wanna suck my cock 18 inches long and six inches around. Then after you swallow i will feed your beaver my wood and seed

anonymous 3 years ago

Not as good as brave new world but its good

anonymous 3 years ago

dasdbashufdgbausgdkjfgbaujdfnkljndskfdsballs

anonymous 3 years ago

it's good

anonymous 3 years ago

It`s amazing!

anonymous 3 years ago

Quite so.

anonymous 3 years ago

It's great, I only just bought the game with G&amp;K the religion is pretty cool but I think the game would still have been great without it. Saying that I'm only on my first play through.

anonymous 3 years ago

it is fun

anonymous 3 years ago

AMAZING

anonymous 3 years ago

I swear, everyone here is at most six years old :(

anonymous 4 years ago

I like chocolate milk

anonymous 4 years ago

of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anonymous 4 years ago

of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anonymous 4 years ago

YES!

anonymous 4 years ago

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anonymous 4 years ago

CoCks54W#23rfv YEEAhh brahfgsetg giggity giggity okc afg34t moo

anonymous 4 years ago

Need a new opening strategy. The horseman takes too long to get now.

anonymous 4 years ago

The best

anonymous 4 years ago

Tits

anonymous 4 years ago

I want your boobs, girl.

anonymous 4 years ago

I love it all.

anonymous 4 years ago

Amazing. I give it 4.999999999 out of 5

anonymous 4 years ago

hehe

anonymous 4 years ago

I like it. It adds alot to the game (new units, religion, etc.)

anonymous 4 years ago

I think its great.

anonymous 4 years ago

I never know who the ruler of my domain is until it is always too late.. Fml

anonymous 4 years ago

Indeed

anonymous 4 years ago

FUck niggers!

anonymous 4 years ago

I love GODS and Kings! Its awesome, Religion, and Espionage make the game SO different, all the extra units, different technologies (I hated how archers had a range of 2, but some how machine guns which shoot farther are melee units?? Made no sense)

I do find it WAY WAY too expensive though. Which is why I had to wait to Cyber Monday to buy it.

anonymous 4 years ago

ERRMAHGERRD ITS AHWERSOMG

anonymous 4 years ago

Yes, the religion aspect gives the game a whole new dimension. It takes a while to get fully used to, though :D

anonymous 4 years ago

ITS AMAZING AND ADDICTING, and really hard

anonymous 4 years ago

Yes, and for you nay-sayers who are complaining about religion being expansion-only, religion is a terrible game mechanic based around an equally crappy metaphor.

anonymous 4 years ago

It's overpriced and most of it should have been vanilla, but it is incredibly fun and can double the amount of play time you log in Civ5.

anonymous 4 years ago

I Liked The Dutch, Great Addition And The Religion Add On Is Just BREATHTAKING Nice Job

anonymous 4 years ago

Haven't bought it, but it looks awesome.

anonymous 4 years ago

hell yeah

anonymous 4 years ago

Fuckkk yeaaa

anonymous 4 years ago

Bought on Steam, love it!

anonymous 4 years ago

Definitely awesome. Much, much better and more addictive game.

anonymous 4 years ago

if you buy it on steam its cheap

anonymous 5 years ago

I think civ 5 is an epic game. There are different ways to win and so it is very strategic. I admit that some people may find the early game repetitive but those people are noobs at this game because they decide to play every game the same way rather than pick different cigs and exploiting their traits. Also, the reason why religion is in the expansion rather than the original game is because religion was never designed to be in civ 5.

In my opinion, gods and kings is definately worth it, this expansion adds a lot more strategy into the game as well as many new luxury recourses for players having difficulty maintaining their happiness.

All in all, civ 5 is an epic game that is well worth it!

anonymous 5 years ago

I used to play for literally over 10 hour matches of age of empires 2, just got this game with a few friends, it looks amazing! Quite sad the age of empires franchise got to sh*t :/

anonymous 5 years ago

The graphics are astounding and it all builds on amazing success in the past. My only problem is that my mouse occasionally glitches.

anonymous 5 years ago

It makes the game 10x more better

anonymous 5 years ago

All the empires are excellent, ditto for the wonders, concepts, policies, techs and systems. There are no major or medium flaws in it.

anonymous 5 years ago

Very very VERY awesome

anonymous 5 years ago

Yes, Espionage and Religion work relly well. Well worth 30 dollars. It made me play civ again

anonymous 5 years ago

Religion adds an interesting element in conducting diplomacy/war. I also enjoy how combat was re-worked, units take a lot more to kill.

anonymous 5 years ago

A game worth buying for any fan, seasoned or not!

anonymous 5 years ago

Truly awesome

anonymous 5 years ago

I love it and new civs. People who have it seem to play longer on steam than with the original.

anonymous 5 years ago

Exquisite.

anonymous 5 years ago

Amazing so far. Really like religion.

anonymous 5 years ago

Completely.

anonymous 5 years ago

It's VERY good. Very, VERY good. They've essentially taken Civ 5 and replaced it with a much, much better game. Little tweaks here and there are appreciated on top of religion, which is cool, and espionage, which is AWESOME.

anonymous 5 years ago

I was disappointed when Civ V took out religion from Civ IV, I was super excited to see it some back!

anonymous 5 years ago

When does it come out for mac? :(

anonymous 5 years ago

WANT!

anonymous 5 years ago

The price is too much, and I really hope the expansion lives up to its hype. If it does, Yes, but if it doesn't, no.

Tips On How To Get Cultural Victory In Civilization V

Get a cultural victory in Civilization 5, let the other factions Fight while you run with the victory

"To win a cultural victory, you must acquire five complete "branches" of social policies - that

is, you must own all policies within six different branches. Once you've done that, the "Utopia

Project" is unlocked. Construct that project and you win a cultural victory. You cannot rush or

purchase this project; it must be constructed."

1. Pick India as your Civilization, it's perfect for few and large cities

2. Get only a few cities. 2 LARGE cities is best if you go for an 8 player game

3. One worker and 1 warrior is enough

4. Race the AI for wonders. You want many wonders, so make sure to build them before the AI does (otherwise you can't build them anymore)

5. Don't open your borders with the AI. They'll see you're weak and attack. Just keep declining

6. You need at least 1 wonder per city. Later you will get a project that doubles the culture of every city which has a wonder

7. Get free religion as early as possible so you get 2 free policies early on. Use it to unlock Constitution (100% culture increase for every city with a wonder). Also unlock Free Speech (Future Policies cost 25% less). This is an important factor to get cultural victory.

8. Get social policies in this order: Tradition -> Piety -> Freedom -> Order -> Commerce. You don't need to get every cultural talent in a social policy straight away, get the policies first

9. Don't bother with tech after the Renaissance era, you don't need the broadcast tower etc

10. Start by getting mining, then go to Stonehenge early in the game

11. Cut down forests to speed up production early in the game.

12. Place specialists in libraries and temples (bottom right in the city menu when you click a city). This will boost your culture and allow you to quickly get artists. Use artists to create landmarks on your tiles. The extra culture they generate helps a lot.

The Official Civilization 5 Guide - This One's Tested By Me And It's Really Good!

Trick That Quickly Makes You Overpowered in Civlization V

Ruins that upgrade your units

There are Ruins scattered all over the map. One thing a ruin can do is upgrade your unit.

Scouts, when upgraded, turn into archers. Since scouts aren't upgradeable usually, and since they have really bad attack power, this is quite useful.

Once upgraded, they keep ignoring terrain.

You can get a rifleman very early in a game if you find enough correct ruins! If you want to cheat, just keep saving and reloading once you find a ruin and it'll do what you want it to do eventually!

You can also use this trick to upgrade a minuteman to a highly mobile riflemen and so on...

Strategy That Will Make You Very Powerful

The Ignore Happiness Strategy

There are 2 phases to this strategy. In phase 1 you play the game normally. In phase 2 you start ignoring happiness and what happens is quite amazing.

This strategy works best with France, as you're going to have a HUGE empire.

First phase, play the game as normal. You'll want to slingshot a bit to get the commerce / freedom trees. Every tree before then is going to be bad for you (except maybe liberty for culture and happiness, as well as fast expansion).

Don't build any happiness buildings, as their maintenance is too much. Focus on nabbing a lot of luxury resources, as once phase 2 hits, you won't grow anymore. Trade for as much luxury resources as possible, and max out your happiness. Get currency at some point, and start all your towns up on markets.

Phase Two. Your goal is to start up a massive war machine, and never stop. You know those times when you want to keep up the fight but you don't because your happiness is capped? Ignore that entirely! Attack enemy cities. ANNEX every single one. Don't build courthouses.

Ignore happiness, and keep capturing cities. Switch all your mines to trade posts. Ignore growth and production. Get every single city maxed out on merchants, and pray for some great merchants. Sell off all happiness resources for more gold. Grab the key commerce policy of -25% spending cost. Build the key wonders for buying units/buildings. Gun for the Renaissance era, as Freedom is the key policy tree.

Put your civilians to work in Trade posts and as Specialists (bottom right in city menu).

As this is really a specialist economy, you'll see quite a few great people, as well as lower food costs from Freedom.

What you lose

- NO city growth

- NO golden ages from happiness

- Half production

- Penalty to combat

What you gain

- A LOT of gold off selling luxuries

- More gold from production

- Cities switching from growth to more useful tiles, like merchants and trade posts

- No maintenance from happiness buildings and previously needed workshops

- No maintenance happens from marketplaces or any other key buildings

- Benefits of currency modifiers over production modifiers

- More specialized policies

- No caring to stop the war machine, and thus a much larger empire

- Gobs and gobs of great generals and other specialists to use for golden ages (+1 commerce per tile in a massive empire!)

- The highest science you'll ever see

You'll be tempted to try this with Arabia for its gold on trade routes, but you need the culture from France. No other civilization can have an empire this size and still pump out social policies.

What Are Your Comments On This Guide And Civilization V? - Post Your Own Strategy!

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

anonymous 4 years ago

Tried that horseman strategy and got steamrolled by Japanese warriors on turn 30. Had not attacked anyone yet. Manage to fend them off and take two of their cities but they got a wall around the last one and I couldn't take it with horsemen.. Then the Aztecs declared war on me for no reason and invaded from across the sea. I fought them off and but the Japs attacked again while I was weak.... definitely not winning this game. Where the fuck do they get their gold from?

anonymous 4 years ago

Your help is worthless

anonymous 4 years ago

Use the Huns. First build settlers and try to get 3 or 4 cities as soon as possible. Then build a shitpile of horse archers and battering rams, and warriors are good enough for melee attacks on a city. Always annex cities 3 or bigger, just raze all of the rest. For culture go for the Honor tree for this strategy. With all your new cities, gold and science accumalte really quickly. By the time you take over the continent, you will be very good technologically speaking.

anonymous 4 years ago

@anonymous: Butt

jackie-l-myers-5 5 years ago

I have tried the one where you "Steamroll" your enemies with Horses...Doesn't work, once your opponets get spearman or spikeman you are history!!

Alenkita1 5 years agofrom Slovenia

Love the Civ series!

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: Yeah...I got 75 unhappiness (new patch came out that added unhappiness for something), and then 8 heli gunships showed up near my capital. It was havoc. There is NO WAY you can beat this. Plus, I believe, the more unhappiness you have the worse the barbs get.

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: Actually a really good strategy! Although doesn't attacking city-states a lot get them ALL mad at you?

If you take india first focus on food and make granary. Then make 2 settlers as quickly as possible . Put Delhi on science focus after making a library there and use other 2 cities for army and to train more settlers. By 100th turn make 4 or 5 cities and after having 5 to 9 armyman standing in each city. Put all cities focus to science and culture. Make more farms to keep up your population growth and upgrading your military units. In this way, keep a modern and small military at borders. Don`t make open border treaties otherwise other civs would see your small military. A more modernised military than theirs keeps them away. By 250th term you would lead in science or culture or both. When in war take your whole army near your city which is attacked. Fight defensively and don`t leave your territory, use city bombarding wisely. In this way war would go for long but your civs development would not be affected. This method gives easy scientific victories even in emperor level.

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 5 years ago

@anonymous: cool! thanks.

anonymous 5 years ago

Best late game strategy is to build 5 to 8 stealth bombers and a helicopter gunship. Helicopter gunships are very fast and can hover on mountains in enemy territory where no land units could attack them. Stealth bombers have very long range and and they can survive mobile sams and anti-aircraft guns. So,place your helicopter at a safe location where it can reach the city in 1 or 2 turns. First attack the nearby land units using stealth bombers and then in a single turn use 5 or 6 bombers on the city then in the same turn attack with helcopter to capture the city. This works best for capital cities which are out of touch. Use the stealth bombers to defend city from enemy units attacking from all sides. With more stealth bombers you could go for just capturing the capital city of large civilizations. Helicopter gunships are best annex cities after hving them nuked or bombarded.

JohnGcorner 5 years ago

Faceroll...

aSwellGuy 5 years ago

CIV2 was one of my favorite games.

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 5 years ago

@shockingfit: thanks

shockingfit 5 years ago

Absolutely the best strategy guide for this game.

anonymous 5 years ago

I use the Japanese because of their bushidu (I probably mispelled that, anyway) What I found out is helpful is to clear off a continent (through conquest or buying other civilization's cities) then have a decent size military on land but a strong naval force near your coast, also you'll want artillary set up on your coast to fire on anything that gets to close. (note this works even better if you build a fort to put them on. Also you'll want to have territory covering that whole continent - we don't want any competition setting up near by now do we?-) After you've secured your position try to purchase a coastal city from another Civ. This way you can transport units there. If you are unable to do that method wait, yes that's right wait until you have about 9000 gold. Then proceed to buy the smallest and most vanurable city from a Civ. (You should get it for around 4,000-5,000 gold) -precaution be sure there aren't any rival civs in the vicinity. After the purchase build a courthouse. once the courthouse is complete purchase a unit (something like artillary to defend the city should someone decide to attack.) Have the city start producing either walls or another unit. Should you still have the gold just start purchasing military upgrades for your city.Once you have purchased all or most of the buildings start purchasing more units it seems a mixture works best, mounted for speed, ranged units for to clear the way and infantry to help take out the rest, with siege units to help with the cities later on. move them to unoccupied tiles so you can keep producing more repeat until you can no longer have any untis in that city's boarders then declare war let the calvaly lead the way (with infantry incase you run into some pike men etc) and start clearing out enemy untis and seiging their cities.(set siege units up on mountains along the way for a range bonus and leave aother unit (like infantry) near by for protection to take out any enemys trying to reach your city. (DO NOT LOSE THIS CITY TO THE ENEMY YOU WILL NEED A FOOTHOLD ON THE NEW CONTINENT. It also helps if the civ you are attacking is at war with another Civ. Example I bought a city that had around 20ish defense rating but using this method I was quickly able to change that to a 53, and have hoards of units in my boarders. After I launched my attack I quickly wiped out their army they had amassed near my boarders and take control of two cities.) OUt of time I will revise this to a nicer layout and may repost later/ also expoloring other options such as cultural. enjoy playing!

@anonymous: you must build a spaceship factory and send the parts there for final assembly

anonymous 5 years ago

I find the best strategy to use is to declare war on the first city state I find, and to use it as a training ground to highly promote my units. I never capture this city. Sometimes I'll choose more than one city state for this purpose.

I focus my unit types as siege and ranged units with just a few melee units to capture cities and protect my siege units from city state melee unit retribution. As promotions are carried over to upgraded units, promotions made on catapults will be carried over to eventual rocket artillery.

My favorite units are bombers and stealth bombers. I train bombers on the city states as above until they have air repair and multiple attacks per turn before I use them against an enemy empire. I do not build stealth bombers, but rather upgrade bombers to stealth bombers.

With this strategy I have always been able to steamroll enemies as soon as I get 2-3 range 3 siege units. With about 15 stealth bombers with air repair and multiple attacks, I have the military power to deny the rest of the world their abilities to win the game and can choose my preferred method of victory.

Remember not to bunch up your stealth bombers in a single city in case it gets nuked.

morganguenot 5 years ago

@anonymous: HI i play civ 5 a lot, and i can't get passed hard difficulty or (king) difficulty, i want a civ that is happy and that grows but every time i run out of recources or i get steam rolled by the enemy cause i didn't build 25 axemen and 20 spear men and 15 archers to take down my enemy, instead i focus on a few things for my cities to build. 1.) library, all cities are acquired to have this no second thought about it. 2) monument, so that all my cities can expand without me having to purchase a lot of land. 3) collosium, so my nation isn't unhappy 24/7. even when i due this, halfway through the game all the other civs have empires so dam big that they crush me and theres nothing i can ever do about it.

virtualboy 5 years ago

well executed and nicely done

anonymous 5 years ago

good!! And the Aztec/chinese strategy is good!^^

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: Send em to your Capitol, as you make them. Move them on the Cap tile, and click the top unit option add to... You NEED 3 Boosters!!!

TeacherSerenia 5 years ago

The first CIV I ever played was Civ 2 way back when - early 1990s

My favourite add-on to Civ was Alpha Centauri - I LOVED that game.

Have played a demo of Civ Rome but don't really like it too much.

Haven't played Civ 4 or 5 yet but they look good

stiny47 5 years ago

Thanks for a great lens.

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: Please share your aztec strategy :)

T0mmyGun 5 years ago

I used to play all the Civ games I think up until about 3... I've learned so much from that game its insane. I'm in College and find myself knowing random historical facts based just on what I learned from Sid.

anonymous 5 years ago

@durham: Hi,

i'm writing from France! I'm playing on the Immortal level which is quite difficult because of the bonuses the AI gets, but not impossible at all.

My favorite nations are the Aztecs (few people know about there qualities) and the Chinese. The Aztecs are getting culture with every enemy kild during the whole game!! Much better than the poor french with tere 7pts per turns. Since in Civilization V, you need to be at war all the time (as a matter of fact in the Immortal level where the AI is very aggressive with you no matter what "neighboors" you have).

They also have a special unit that heals a bit every time it kills a oponent which is very useful to help you heal faster in the battle or have the time to find shealter in a near city to heal without being killed. The thing that is rarely mentioned even in the manual is that this specificity last all the game also with the upgrades (swordman, logswordman, riffle man etc...) The last point about the Aztecs but not the least is the special building they have which help your cities grow very very fast in pop if you near a river or a lake (a coast? not sure about that one) and having big cities is also a important key of the game.

I stopped playing the Aztecs simply because i find this civilization almost too gifted and i manage to win all the time on the highest level of qualification that is "Jules Caesar".

It took me quite a long time to reach the Immortal level though! ;-)

I founded very hard to step from Emperor to Immortal.

One of the major key is to be very aggressive and attack as soon as possible the enemies around you before they get you!! The idea is to gain rapid superiority by getting puppet cities and thus make you defeated rival weaker. I will almost advice not to stop after one citiy captured but even aniliate completely that oponent even if he offers your a great amount of gold and luxuries (very tempting) because it's always only a pause in order to build a new and bigger army and take revenge as quickly as possible. The Ai is very rancorous!!

The Chinese are very good to play as well, because of the powerful army you get from there "generals" more powerful than regular ones.They also have a special library wich support you with an extra gold/turn at the same time.

These two are acording to me the top civilizations to win anykind of victory (scientific, war, diplomatic, cultural)

Now my goal is trying to win no matter what civilization i take. Quite a big challenge because i really find the other ones bellow. The Arabs are not bad, the Grecs seem capable also, and some units in the game are quite impressive and make one eager to try, like the english longbow that can shoot from 2 distance (even over obstacles) early in the game. It's as valuable as the inevitable modern artillery so powerful. Those longbow when numerous makes it quite impossible to take a big english city at this period of the game, impressive and dangerous!

Even though i'm playing at the highest level of the game (Divinity doesn't count of course, it's just a joke!) i'm still looking for some tips that may have not occurred to me. Those are capital on high levels because the Ai knows them all and optimises, except for the battles which lack a bit of human strategy ;-) They most of the time leave there generals without a unit on them.

I hope my topic will be useful for some reader.

One point that is never mentioned in those topics and that saves my arse in all the games is the Citadels (option that changes a general into a heavy defensive building on a tile of your choice) This is not only a defense like a simple Fort for instance, is like a "soldiers crushing machine"! All the enemies that end there turn in a tile next to it lose something like 50% of health points. In case of a great invasion on one of your cities and if you can't manage to deals with too many (remember that a city that is surrounded is weakened and gets increasing penalty which make it easier to take) than build such a Citadel nearby and you will really be amazed by it's eficiency!! No regrets at all in such case to sacrify a General.

Bye and continue to enjoy this beautiful game :)

Thibaut

chas-maximus 5 years ago

@Wooden-Crosses LM: Civ 4 was an awkward transition between Civ 3 (which was fantastic) and Civ 5, which seems to be potentially great. I stopped playing Civ 4, but I'm pumped about Civ 5, as you say not all the micromanaging, and all kinds of possibilities for military stragies and tactics. The City-State thing is a lil weird, I just take um out.

chas-maximus 5 years ago

@kerbev: Yeah its a real jump from Civ 3 to 4 and 5, but be patient, its worth while. Not being able to stack units changes your military tactics quit a bit. Most, not all, changes are for the better. The City-State thing doesn't make a lot of sense, I just take them out. The "help" they give you is minimal. Its better to learn by trial and error than reading guides. It ultimately makes you a better player.

chas-maximus 5 years ago

@TriviaChamp: Infantry is very powerful, and a game winner in Civ 5. Build units that upgrade to Infantry, build them in cities with all military improvements, go with Honor as first Policy. Eventually you will have a ton of veteran, fully upgraded infantry. They can take out a powerful enemy quickly with a few tanks mixed in.

jadehorseshoe 5 years ago

Useful Lens.

durham 5 years ago

I have spent so much time on this game, and I still fall far behind the hardcore gamers. I can't get above prince level without having to save and load to fix my mistakes:)

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: Send them to your capital

anonymous 5 years ago

What do you do when you have all the pieces of the space ship??

Are they supposed to go to a particular tile or is it an automamtic chain reaction when you've completed the space ship??

Thanks

anonymous 5 years ago

I purchased this on Monday... thanks for the tips!

kjbranch77 5 years ago

Great Guide!

booknow 5 years ago

Great tips. Nice lens.

iracer JLo 5 years ago

Great lens, I love this game. Easy to lose track of time though lol.

GoldenClone 5 years ago

good

gamecheathub 5 years ago

Looking forward to trying some of these strategies. Thanks for posting this!

anonymous 5 years ago

@anonymous: nice tip, thanx. also, i tried to see how high i could get my unhappiness @ endgame with 1 enemy capital left. got to 92 and rebels were spawning every 5 turns or so. had barbarian giant death robots running around, it was hilarious. only problem was, i was trying to get them to capture my cities for the achievement, but they were to stupid at city seiging to take any of my cities. and my cities defense was too strong. i was only on king dificulty tho so maybe they will take one @ higher level

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 5 years ago

@anonymous: No problem! Good luck.

anonymous 5 years ago

Thanks for the tips, I haven't played Civ before, I think I'm enjoying it - it's just taking me quite a few games to appreciate the finer points and try harder levels. My current tactic is to play Washington, keep myself to myself until i can build B17s. At this point I then build/buy 7 or 8 planes (which can be stacked) and then kill everything, bombing cities down so that a single soldier can just wander in by himself and then I move on. This also has the beauty of maxing out the upgrades pretty quickly so that each plane gets 2 strikes, extra range etc. nice!

shivnagsudhakar 5 years ago

good

anonymous 6 years ago

"gunpowder infantry can't fire from a distance (weird, huh?)." - gunmen can't shoot over the heads of troops in front, like archers can

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 6 years ago

@anonymous: haha, sometimes true!

anonymous 6 years ago

Chicken fritters!

Happiness is overrated.

anonymous 6 years ago

Ignoring happiness has another disadvantage. after your happiness decreses to - 20 or less, randomly barbarian units start appearing inside your territory in large numbers and with similar units as you do. And these barbarinans can range from tanks to SAM and cause lot of damage.

Also one more strategy I would like to add is, that if you are constantly at was with other players with 10 turns peace treaties in between, this is for you. In the turn that you are going to declare war, make a trade with your opponent for his gold inreturn for resources from you. Take all the AI players gold and declare war, you get all your resources back and plus the gold to fund your army.

I find AI quite lame after playing for a long time.

anonymous 6 years ago

Ignoring happiness has another disadvantage. after your happiness decreses to - 20 or less, randomly barbarian units start appearing inside your territory in large numbers and with similar units as you do. And these barbarinans can range from tanks to SAM and cause lot of damage.

Also one more strategy I would like to add is, that if you are constantly at was with other players with 10 turns peace treaties in between, this is for you. In the turn that you are going to declare war, make a trade with your opponent for his gold inreturn for resources from you. Take all the AI players gold and declare war, you get all your resources back and plus the gold to fund your army.

I find AI quite lame after playing for a long time.

anonymous 6 years ago

civ 5 is a hard game to master, is there anyway how to do all of these at the same tme :D

anonymous 6 years ago

I think the game makers decided the "steamroll" strategy with horsemen was an exploit a few months ago and made them less potent. Still, many good ideas here. I especially like and use the "no open borders" tip early in the game. Keeps me from getting attacked while my army is small.

anonymous 6 years ago

France = culture + large empire &gt; defiantly! Just finished winning a science victory where by the year 2000, I was getting new social policies at an accelerating rate. In fact by the end game (when I was building the space ship components, researching future techs), it was a new policy every 18 turns or so. I didn't finish my death robot or the Sydney Opera house (free policy!), I was one turn away, when I got the science victory. Liberty and Commerce are the bomb for culture and science regardless of expansion.

anonymous 6 years ago

@anonymous: If you attack players, especially city states, nations around you will simply like you less and eventually denounce you..

anonymous 6 years ago

@anonymous: Build a couple of destroyers to protect the rest of you navy fleet. Build 3 carriers with fighters on them fully loaded except for one of them or wto of them in wich you will load with nuclear weapon instead (does not work with long range missile). Build lots of transport ships. Have lots of armor, mech-infantry, helicopter and anti air units with you. Get close to a strategic point in wich you wish to unload your units and start the invasion. Start off with nuclear attack. The nuclear attack is very importnant. The dilemma is wether to nuke the major enemy production cities or nuke their forces (you make the choice) Next step is to use half of your fighters from your carriers to weaken or destroy close by enemy units (other half to defend against incoming enemy air-units). Last step start invasion by forming a bidgehead with tanks - infantry in front of your artillery. The defenders will most likely attack you. Stand your ground and control it for a while while you still have battleships, artillery and air fighters defending you. When the enemy is enough weakened you initiate an assult on a city. Do not go after the main cities straight away. Take cities with strategic landscape. Do not end up fighting in between two cities bombarding your forces at once. It will end up in disaster :) (i say this from experience) Once you have secured an area you simply pump in as many units as fast as you can from your main continent and keep the pressure going until you destroy that civilization. I have made this strategy on emperor difficulty and succeeded, so it works. But you need a strong economy.

anonymous 6 years ago

This strategies are very cool. I will use them in my next game. Thnx :D!

anonymous 6 years ago

@anonymous: Queen, you are a nasty person

anonymous 6 years ago

I've been trying to win the game in King difficulty, and I have tried most nations and different strategies, and I lost many times, expect twice, that with a bit of luck I controlled important piece of land that connected my continent to the other Romans, because I was a bit behind technology, which always is the case specially in difficulties above prince, my powerful frigates that defended and dominated my coastal lines became useless so I started to research dynamite and then Artillery, and built enough to keep the annoying destroyers and all vessels off my coast, while defending the little the strait and killing any sort of land unit that came close to it, my tactic was to defend and hold as long as possible, and in the meantime I did everything possible to speed up research and catch up, and that was when I started wining, fir I built a powerful, navy, upgrading my valuable veteran frigates to destroyers, and my riflemen to infantry and I captured and conquered all roman cities, as soon as I got access Apollo program I constructed it and won a science victory. The other time I was with USA and although I conquered my content and cleaned entirely and annoying warmongering civilization. yet again I was a few steps behind my rivals Egypt and Greece, and they were already in the way to win a science victory. but again luck was on my side, I possessed 4 Uranium, and with Autocracy I made them 8, I built the manhattan project 3 nuclear plant in the cites that had the most production, and then I built atomic bomb, and everything got messy after that, I think I nuked most of the cities.

anonymous 6 years ago

What about invasion tactics? i mean, you want to invade a other civ but it is from another continent and it is just as powerful as you, what to do?

anonymous 6 years ago

@anonymous: You got denounced because you attacked and annexed two city states. Civ Leaders tend to look at that, as well as multiple wars with other Civs, as war-mongering, and feel uneasy because you might run train over them too. You don't need to give cities what they demand, but by doing so you get a We Love The King day, increasing growth.

It sounds like you need to narrow your focus down to how you want to win the game, and it really sounds like you might be boxing yourself into military domination, based on your track record.

anonymous 6 years ago

@kerbev: yes

anonymous 6 years ago

you didn't mention in the Cultural Strategy that you need to enter the Industrial Era before you can open the Order tree, so it may not matter WHAT you choose in science after the renaissance era but you can't forget science altogether at this point...

Ben Reed 6 years ago

Excellent lens, it was very helpful. Thank you.

Ecosimon LM 6 years ago

Great guide!! Really love playing Civilization games. Just purchased Civ 5 and these hints and tips will come in might handy thanks!!

anonymous 6 years ago

thanks bro, helpful guide

anonymous 6 years ago

These strategies might work against AI (but I wouldn't expect it to work above 6th level) and against noobs. The statistics will show what army you have in the MP game. In case of no army you will be attacked very soon (especially when you build many wonders). Actually I find the cultural victory is the slowest (I won once this way, even on deity level, but actually after beating down computer in combat first as I just wanted to see the victory screen).

In case of high military, a good player will start its combat preparations when he sees that you are building up your army. He will keep them lower than yours, but with +33% defense bonus on his territory his units will kill yours.

From my experience the best way to win on the multiplayer is to appropriately combat your enemy (especially the first one). Either you need to start with a defense (suppose than you have stronger economy and will be able to kill all incoming army) or choose a convenient moment to attack (usually just after inventing some war technology that the opponent does not have yet and most preferably enables the benefits of your special units).

Nevertheless, you should always look after your science, as fighting against more advanced units in longer term will make you lose.

anonymous 6 years ago

@TriviaChamp: I noticed gaining a strong naval unit is key if you have a lot of land masses to conquer with open sea ..I usually wait till I have 3 or 4 frigates than totally dominate the sea..either the USA or England works

anonymous 6 years ago

my strategy:

1 focus on science and somewhat on gold &amp; get luxury resources

2 build a few warriors and trbuceets early on and upgrade them asap

3 if u focus on sci u will have mechanized infantry &amp; rocket artelery when others have riflemen

4 sell lux resources

5 use money to upgade units and buy new ones

5 use ur tecnologicaly advaced army to crush all

notes: more cites=more science

u don't need a massive army

anonymous 6 years ago

@anonymous: Also, my military is:

3 pikeman

3 knights.

2 cannons

a minuteman unit about to come in a few turns.

1 crossbowmen.

1 longswordman promoted from swordsmen promoted from warriors.

anonymous 6 years ago

I'm kind of stuck in where I am now, and I want to ask for help. I'm new to Civilization completely, so the difficulty is settler. I'm playing as Washington, and I have 7 cities. I started Washington. Then created New York. Sold new york to caesar/rome. then declared war on caesar. he wanted a peace treaty in the middle. i refused and kicked his butt and took new york. then i moved over and made Boston. I had declared war on a city state right next to me, Oslo. they were allied to venice so im at war with them both. i captured them both, annexed them. from boston, i moved down and made philadelphia on a peninsula. then moved next to it on an island and made atl. ive a very strong military, but ive run into problems. First, i got backstabbed and denounced by my oldest ally suleiman who i never denounced, and my new friend oba nobunaga denounced me with them, and also alexander. i only declaredwar on caesar (a second time) and settled a peace treaty. ive a research agreement with suleiman. next, ive noticed that im kind of surrounded: caesar/rome to north, alexander/athens to left, helsinki(citystate) to right, suleiman/istanbul to upper right. i haven't explored south yet. i have a happiness of 64, increased from 48 from courthouse. good technology, just passed turn 250, 1735 AD. good luxury sources, have a source of horses, trying to get iron for better units. however, my cities keepdemanding things i don't have near my empire, like wine/spices/sugar/cotton. I try to trade with caesar/japan/suleiman/alexander but they want too much out of my comfort zone. however, im allied with city-state of belegrade who is militaristic and gives me a unit occasionally. (they've given me a pikeman unit and a knight unit). i just got into minutemen and have 2 cannon units.

anonymous 6 years ago

I just tried this with Arabia, have all nations beating me by 54000 (speed: slow as molasses), lost by Pansy McGee victory (I decided to bend over for France and some other nations after Egypt's occupation).

and what's more interesting, I had enough gold to build happyness-generating buildings so in the end I had like 436 happy faces.

most important to get bees (and enough sources of bees) to build at least .5 archers and 3 warriors. with this army, there is everything to stop you. the go directly to herpspowder and then to artillery, as it is only way to keep losing without building ABSOLUTELY MICROSCOPIC army. by the time you have your continent beating your arse, you'll study Navigation and then HURR DURR!!!!

I just tried this with Babylon, have all nations beaten by 1900 (speed: Standard), won by Space victory (I decided to liberate India and some other nations after Egypt's occupation).

and what's more interesting, I had enough gold to build happyness-generating buildings so in the end I had like 20 happy faces.

most important to get Iron (and enough sources of iron) to build at least 5 swordsmen and 3 trebuchets. with this army, there is nothing to stop you. the go directly to gunspowder and then to artillery, as it is only way to keep winning without building HUGE army. by the time you have your continent conquired, you'll study Navigation and then whoohooo!

anonymous 6 years ago

I just tried this with Babylon, have all nations beaten by 1900 (speed: Standard), won by Space victory (I decided to liberate India and some other nations after Egypt's occupation).

and whats more interesting, I had enough gold to build happyness-generating buildings so in the end I had like 20 happy faces.

most important to get Iron (and enough sources of iron) to build at least 5 swordsmen and 3 trebuchets. with this army, there is nothing to stop you. the go directly to gunspowder and then to artillery, as it is only way to keep winning without building HUGE army. by the time you have your continent conquired, you'll study Navigation and then whoohooo!

WaitersFromHell 6 years ago

Very nice guide. I'm actually thinking about getting and playing the game now. :)

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 6 years ago

@anonymous: I've gotten it to work on immortal, the key is being really really fast and overwhelm the enemy... Maybe you also need a bit of luck on immortal :)

I'd say the best use for this is multiplayer games... You can pretty much clear the continent of all the noobs and have the game in your pocket before it even begins :)

anonymous 6 years ago

i tried that steamroll strategy but couldn't get it to work on immortal (so either it doesn't work on ALL difficulties or i just suck) but it did work for emperor down

AtomicD00m 6 years ago

Nice guide, I'm downloading the game right now, it owns!! :D

Sadheeskumar 6 years ago

Great Guide. Very neatly done. Good work.

anonymous 6 years ago

I'm not a gamer but this looks very interesting and fun. Nice job!

Blurasis 6 years ago

Great info!

Tahamtan 6 years ago

good information and good timing for having this information. Civilization truly is one of the most special and genius video games of all times.

anonymous 6 years ago

Informative gaming guides!

RebeccaE 6 years ago

all I can say is thank you thank you thank you, this is soooo helpful!

disabledliving 6 years ago

bought the bradygames guide, it rocks

BethlehemOliveWood 6 years ago

I bought this guide and another guide.. This one is the best, hands down.

Author

Wooden-Crosses LM 6 years ago

@kerbev: This one's pretty good! A lot has changed :) If you like micro management play civ IV, if you like combat and more tactical play play this :) Civ IV seems very outdated though when I play 5

kab 6 years agofrom Upstate, NY

I haven't played Civ in a long time...since Siv 3! I should really give this a go.